Welcome! As a coach, I wanted to share information about my basketball interests. The reason for choosing "Massey Basketball" is to make sure people understand this is not an official blog of Galesburg HS. The blog is designed to provide information about the Streaks and basketball, motivation, and anything that interests me.

Friday, July 22, 2011

18 players and coaches volunteered to help this morning with the set up for the Relay for Life at Knox College. Paige Klinck took charge and did a nice job organizing players and coaches to help. The team helped setting up the stage, chairs, and the bags for the luminaries. The girls definitely got a lot done. Proud of their willingness to give of their time and even more proud of the spirit they had as they worked. Job well done for a good cause.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Stephen Curry is one of the great shooters in the NBA. In college he almost took his team to the Final Four with his shooting. This is an article written about Curry in the SFGate.com by March 11, 2010|By Scott Ostler

Stephen Curry is the Phantom of the Opera. He even brings his own music.

Late at night, 10 or 11 o'clock on non-game nights, Curry lets himself into the Warriors' practice gym in downtown Oakland, and shoots. Typically, he'll go an hour and a half, long enough to reach a goal, like sinking 500 shots.

He'll bring along a buddy to rebound, and an iPod sound dock loaded with rap (Lupe Fiasco is his favorite), R&B and heavy metal.

These sessions are on top of the half hour or so of extra shooting Curry does after team practices, launching from beyond the three-point arc, a robot rebound machine spitting a ball to him every few seconds.

The following is part of an essay by Alan Stein on his blog. For the entire story go to---
http://blog.strongerteam.com/

There are 3 symptoms of the ‘disease of me’ – each of which severely stagnates a player’s growth and development. Having worked a ton of camps and events this summer, I have seen each of these symptoms from players of every age and every level:

Sunday, July 17, 2011

It is nice in the summer to be able to focus more on the process and not be as concerned with the outcome. Because there are not newspaper articles and no scoring averages- it is easier for players to be focused on the team and less on individual achievement.

But that being said, it is important to do some analysis to better understand where we are at and what we need to do to get to where we want to go.

We have just completed our organized team summer basketball work. It is nice on a high school level to have time to re-implement the Grinnell System. It is different working on it in summer than in the season. In our set up, it is tougher to have quality practice time to develop habits, but you have the "carrot" of informal games to work on the System.

Here are some of my reflections of how it works putting it in during the summer (some thoughts may apply to in-season too).

Friday, July 15, 2011

This is our "JV team" with Coach Hatchell after one of their games. This may have been our most fun team to watch play. They had freshmen who did not get to play with the other freshmen, sophomores who did not get to play with the other sophs, and a couple juniors who did not always get to play with the varsity. They could have all been unhappy and played without enthusiasm. As it turned out, they were extremely upbeat, enthusiastic, supportive of each other, and played hard. As a result, they had a GREAT week as a team, and finished with the best record of any of our teams.

They were a great lesson in enthusiasm being contagious. Good job girls!!

In the closing ceremonies at team camp, Coach Sylvia Hatchell had a great comment. "What has separated our championship teams from our other teams has not been their talent but their chemistry. How far you go in the tourney is determined by your team chemistry."

When I heard her say that, I could not help but think of our 2010-11 team. They played hard and they had talent, but were they more talented than some of our teams over the past 4-5 years who never made it to Elite 8? I would say the 2010-11 team was talented, but I would not say they were necessarily more talented than some of our non-Elite 8 team. But I would say our team chemistry was off the charts.

Great Monday evening game for the varsity in the Smith Center. When the girls arrived in the lobby of the dorm, it was obvious we had a tired crew. It always seems at camp that the getting up early and playing lots of games causes them to hit the wall at some point. We sure started out that way. We were down about 8-10 early in the game. Collegiate HS, Va had an outstanding point guard and she was slicing thru our press that was not very energetic. After a time out and the quarter break where we just talked about our identity as a team this summer has been with our defense and with our depth/quickness- we REALLY stepped it up. In particular Sharron Diggins began to give their point guard fits, and if she escaped, there was Rainee Sibley. We ended up pulling away to a 6-8 point win. It was a great lesson for us or rather reminder that we need to stay within who we are- which means getting after it on the defensive end.

So after playing pretty well and with lots of energy Monday morning and afternoon but losing- we finished the day with great energy and a really nice win. That puts us at 3-2 with 3 games left tomorrow.

The Frosh Soph team won vs. Christian School of NY and then loss vs. Penn Trafford, Pa to now be 3-2. Our JV's lost their first game to Greensburg, Pa to go to 4-1. Our frosh got their first win vs. Marlboro, SC.

Keith Parson, who is a fan of Grinnell Style basketball and lives in Carolina ventured over for our 8:15am game at Carmichael Arena. Keith runs a blog, KP's World, which is devoted to Grinnell basketball teams. It was fun to meet him and to talk to him. He got to see a thriller. We lost by 3 points but came from 12 down. It was a great game for us, pressing and hitting threes against a good team from North Carolina. We had Rainee Sibley at the line for a 1 and 1, down 4 with 3 seconds. She made the first and then we tried to miss the second and rebound it. We were not able to do it.

Also at game one this morning, we had Paige Klinck's grandparents arrive for the 8:15am game. It was nice to see them, and I know Paige was excited to see them.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Day 1 almost done at Chapel Hill. Allen and I right now are at Caribou Coffee to get free internet access. It is definitely a college atmosphere. Students working on assignment, and a guy at a table playing his guitar and singing. The chocolate chip cookies are not bad.

Sadly missed the Massey Family Reunion today at Middlebury Church in Hollandale. It would have been nice to catch up with all the Badgers!!

Today started with a group of the players, Allen, and I going to Christ United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill. The people were so warm and welcoming- it is great for the girls to see adults being so cordial. The sermon topic was on "spreading the seeds." It was interesting that on the way back, we talked about the value of "spreading the seeds" in our lives in general but also within our athletic lives with our friends/teammates. Rewarding experience for sure.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

We had an enjoyable visit to Duke University. When you drive up to Cameron Indoor Stadium, you would think you are entering a beautiful state park. Next to UW-Madison, it is the most beautiful college campus in America (that I have seen).

We were able to take in sites around Cameron, and then walk across campus. The buildings are so impressive. Sadly, I think teenagers don't get into any buildings over 10 years old. But all of the buildings are in a classic English school style, complete with arches. We also had a chance to see the outside of the Duke Chapel.

We have arrived in Carolina. We are staying in Durham, between Duke and UNC, for tonight. We left Morehead, Kentucky at 8:00am with many sleepy passengers. That made for an enjoyable morning ride. Teenagers asleep are wonderful! We stopped for a quick McDonald's lunch and arrived in Durham at 3:30pm. After a short rest, we are headed over to Duke University this evening, and then out for pizza.

Friday, July 8, 2011

We loaded up and left Galesburg this morning for our trip to Carolina. We got on the road about 8:30am with 39 players and 5 coaches for the trip. Our Tri-State driver, Randy, is going to do a nice job for us. He found a spot for lunch that offered us choices of Jimmy John's, Kentucky Fried, McDonalds, and Wendy's. The popular choice seemed to be Wendy's. The coaches chose to eat healthy at Jimmy John's.

We finished our 25th summer of hosting summer leagues at Galesburg High School on this Thursday. We had 13 nites and days of girls basketball games. We hosted 75+ teams, and 84 Galesburg girls had a chance to play on a team.

I was especially pleased with the progress that our junior high and younger high school players showed. It is a great chance as many of them played 15-20 games of basketball. In many cases our younger teams were matched up playing against older teams-- junior high vs. freshmen, freshmen vs. sophs, frosh-soph vs. varsity. That can be a real challenge but we feel the competition helps them improve their games. I was especially excited to see how much our junior high players improved.

Monday, July 4, 2011

I am convinced that every athlete in every sport needs to have the ability to dream about the future and needs to have "vision" of their success. On those hot, sweaty July days, athletes need to be driven with vision of their potential success.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

1. You are here for a reason and the most important thing you can do in life is to find, live and share your purpose. It’s the one thing in life that truly matters and if you don’t pursue it, everything else is meaningless.

2. Follow your passion. It so often leads you to your purpose. Do what energizes you.

3. You may not know what your passion is right now. That’s OK. The important thing is to make it your life mission to find it, live it and share it. To help find your passion, seek out jobs and experiences that allow you to use your strengths and gifts.